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Unsurprisingly, Democrats and Republicans diverge on questions of who would better handle different policy matters—but the differences on AI regulation are narrower than other issues in the survey. On AI regulation, 22% of both Democrats and Republicans say Harris would have done “about the same” as Trump, a rate of cross-party agreement far higher than on issues such as immigration (7% of Democrats, 6% of Republicans), the economy (11%, 10%), or inflation (12%, 11%).
The overall partisan gap is also narrower: though there is a vast 65-point spread between Democrats who say Harris would do “better” (73%) than Trump on AI regulation and Republicans who also say so (8%), that gap is the smallest among the issues tested, compared with gaps of 75 and 76 percentage points on immigration, inflation, and the economy.
“The relative lack of partisan polarization on AI is particularly striking in this political moment, given the ongoing political polarization on almost all other issues,” said University of Pennsylvania professor Matt Levendusky, the Stephen and Mary Baran Chair in the Institutions of Democracy at APPC. “Concern about AI is bipartisan, and the public is waiting to see what politicians will do. This offers real potential rewards to either party if they can convince the public that they have the correct approach.”